A powerful bomb attack killed three people and injured at least 15 in the centre of the Turkish capital Ankara Tuesday, interior minister said.
"Three citizens were killed and 15 were injured, five of whom are in critical condition," Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said in televised remarks.
What caused the blast was not immediately clear but Sahin said "there is a high possibility that it was a terrorist attack."
Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said in early remarks that a bomb attack caused the explosion.
"Technical teams are on the ground and listening to the witnesses," Governor Alaaddin Yuksel told Anatolia.
One witness at the scene said a gas tube at a shop nearby was thrown outside and caused a car explosion, according to the governor.
The blast, which occurred near the Cankaya district administration offices, blew out windows of shops and offices in the surrounding area, damaged cars and sparked a fire which was later put out by firefighters at the scene, NTV said.
The offices are near downtown Kizilay square in Ankara, a city of 4 million inhabitants and home to many government buildings as well as military headquarters.
Police feared a second explosion and sealed off the area, said NTV.
Kurdish rebels have conducted bomb attacks in Turkey’s urban areas in the past.
The blast comes at a time when Turkish officials threatened to launch an incursion by its ground forces against Kurdish rebel bases operating in northern Iraq after a recent spate of attacks.
Speaking to Turkish daily Hurriyet last week, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said those were matters not to be discussed but to be acted upon.
Turkey’s government has been considering a series of measures in the face of the upsurge in attacks, including a request to parliament to extend its authorization for cross-border military operations for one more year after it expires next month.
Turkish aircraft have repeatedly bombed the bases of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq since August 17, and more than a 100 rebels have been killed in the raids, according to official figures.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.
